February 9, 2012

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New rules proposed for deciding cow-zapping cases of stray voltage

January 31, 2012 By

Ag groups and utility companies are being challenged to propose changes in a bill that would set up a new statewide standard for addressing cases of “stray” electric voltage that zap farm livestock. 

“It’s just easy to say, ‘No, no, no.’ How do we solve the problem?” asks Representative Stewart Iverson, a Republican from Clarion who is the bill’s manager. “Because we know stray voltage can be a huge problem.”

It’s mainly a problem on dairy farms where, for example, cows hooked up to milking machines sometimes can get zapped if there’s a power surge. Matthew Steinfeldt, a lobbyist for the Iowa Farm Bureau, says farmers and utilities are doing just fine in resolving any problems and the bill’s unnecessary.

“The best thing is to quickly identify and resolve stray voltage (issues). That’s what farmers want to do, but what this bill does, I mean, it’s a major change that will have a significant effect,” Steinfeldt says. “In a way, it takes away a right to due process. No other group in the state of Iowa is subject to something like this.”

Kellie Paschke lobbies for the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, another group that is opposed to the bill.

“This bill goes beyond just setting a standard for stray voltage,” Paschke says. “It completely changes how stray voltage claims can be pursued.”

A three-member subcommittee gave initial approval to this controversial bill earlier today, but the three legislators say they’re hoping the interest groups involved suggest “major” changes in the legislation. Representative Brian Quirk, a Democrat from New Hampton, was a member of the three-member committee. Quirk, who happens to be an electrician, said the bill needs to better define the standards for the stray voltage tests.

“Cattle are a lot like people…Their tolerance levels (for pain) are a lot different,” Quirk said during today’s subcommittee meeting. “Where is that threshold?”

Quirk supports the bill’s requirement that the state Utility Board be the first stop for resolving disputes over stray voltage.

“I like the fact that the Utility Board, being a third-party resource, to actually define where the fault did occur,” Quirk said. “Should it be with the utility or with the consumer?”

Critics say the bill limits a farmer’s ability to sue for damages if their livestock are harmed by stray voltage.

“As Rural Electic Cooperatives, we’re very supportive of the dairy industry. This bill is not to take a shot at the dairy industry, but more about resolving safety issues that result from stray voltage,” said Timothy Coonan, a lobbyist for Iowa Rural Electric Cooperatives. “The process we’re proposing leads to resolution of those issues much quicker, much safer and less costly for everyone concerned.”

The bill as currently drafted tries to combine laws and regulations from the states of Idaho and Wisconsin. Those states rank in the top five nationally in terms of dairy production. Iowa ranks 12th in the number of pounds of milk produced per year.

According to the Iowa Dairy Association, there were more than 200,000 dairy cattle in the state in 2010. There were more than 1900 dairy farms that year in Iowa.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Featured Story, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Economist warns ag economy’s “bubble” may come down soon

January 14, 2012 By

A Midwestern economist says it’s likely the state’s ag economy soon will be hit by the recession in Europe and slower growth in farmland values. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the hit won’t be anything like the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, however.

“When I was a kid, we talked about dirt poor. Dirt’s not poor anymore. In fact farmland is the new gold,” Goss says. “These growth rates are unsustainable. There is air in the bubble, the question is when air comes out. I expect some of it to come out in 2012, but not much.”

According to Goss, the problem during the Farm Crisis was people had been buying farmland on credit — and interest rates were sky-high back then.

“Agland purchases now are a lot to do with cash. This is not over-leveraged farmers who are borrowing from the bank to buy the land which is based on a significant growth rate. That’s not what we’re seeing,” Goss says. “That said, I still expect some of the air to come out of the bubble because of potentially higher interest rates and lower agricultural commodity prices.”

Goss also expects overseas demand for ag commodities from European customers to decline due to the recession, causing a “slight” hit on prices for corn and soybeans. Goss made his comments on the “Iowa Press” program which will air Sunday at noon on Iowa Public Television.

Filed Under: Agriculture, News Tagged With: , ,

Corn Growers grade the candidates (audio)

November 30, 2011 By

An Iowa-based agricultural group has released what it describes as a “tool” farmers may use to evaluate the 2012 presidential candidates.

The Iowa Corn Caucus Project provides letter grades for each of the candidates based on their records on “corn-based issues only” according to Mindy Larsen Poldberg, director of government relations for the Iowa Corn Growers.

Here’s the report card:

Corn Growers candidate grades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s not an endorsement, but this is something that I think that, you know, everyone in agriculture should look at,” says Kevin Ross, a grain and livestock farmer from Minden who is president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. “…In my opinion, it’s something that should be used and looked at pretty seriously.”

Ross told reporters he was surprised to see grades for candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry be as low as they turned out to be.

“That certainly is an issue when you talk about candidates  that are considered a front-runner at that point, if their ag policy is that poor, then we have a problem,” Ross says.

Ross is urging Iowa farmers and others who work in ag-related industries to “educate” the candidates on how they can “improve” their grades in this area.

AUDIO Ross and others from the Corn Growers Association briefing reporters on the report card.

Drew Ivers, Ron Paul’s Iowa campaign manager, called the survey results “an unfortunate and misleading reflection” of Paul’s positions and record on ag-related issues.

“Ron Paul is the strongest candidate in the field for free and unfettered agriculture with minimum government involvement both in the form of regulations and subsidies,” Ivers said in a written statement. “He is very confident that the American farmer has the ability, on his own, to produce a great product for a great price while being a very responsible steward of the land on which he lives and makes a living.”

(This story was updated at 12:18 p.m. with additional information.)

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Governor’s brother fined $10,000 for manure spill

November 16, 2011 By

Governor Branstad’s brother has been fined for causing a manure spill last year. 

Monroe Branstad, who goes by the name Monte, has a cattle feedlot in rural Forest City. A judge fined Monte Branstad $10,000 for a manure spill in April of last year. State investigators determined 900,000 gallons of manure from Branstad’s feedlot wound up in a tributary of the Winnebago River.  Monte Branstad admits the manure came from his feedlot, but he says the spill was unintentional. 

Monte Branstad was cited for another manure spill in 2008 and in 2007 he was cited for violating open burning and solid waste disposal regulations. About a decade ago, Monte Branstad and his aunt got into a legal dispute over a farm loan.

Governor Branstad released his tax returns in 2010 and 2011. They show the governor has no business relationship with his brother.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Environment & Conservation, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Iowa Christmas Tree Growers lament flap over tree tax

November 12, 2011 By

The president of the Iowa Christmas Tree Growers Association says he’s frustrated a new fee to help promote his industry has been sidelined.

Republicans in congress called the 15-cent-per-tree charge President Obama’s “tax on Christmas.” Bob Moulds, a tree farmer near Fairbank, Iowa, is president of the Iowa Christmas Tree Growers.

“I couldn’t believe that this became political,” Moulds says. “This was the wish of the growers themselves, and it’s not what we consider a tax at all.”

Moulds, who is president of the Iowa Christmas Tree Growers, says the fee was proposed for trees from farms that sell more than 500 trees a year — and it would have applied to sales at just six of the more than 80 Christmas tree farms in Iowa.

One Republican congressman called the 15-cent-per-tree charge “Grinch”-like. Christmas tree growers like Moulds say the popularity of artificial trees has hurt their industry and they proposed the fee to create a fund that would market the sale of “real” Christmas trees, similar to the dairy industry’s “Got Milk?” campaign. Moulds says his industry has been seeking a steady source of funding for an ad campaign for years. 

“There’s going to be effectively no more cost to the customer because growers have, by and large, been contributing, but it’s been on more of an ad hoc basis,” Moulds says. “It’s just a normal thing that we were considering and we were just grateful that the USDA had agreed to do this for us.” 

The new fee to create a “Christmas Tree Promotion Board” was set to go into effect this past Wednesday, but the Obama Administration announced it would be delayed after Republicans criticized it.  Similar fees are collected from the sale of milk, eggs, beef and pork to finance advertising and other activities which promote the sale of those products.

Filed Under: Agriculture, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Romney’s stand on ethanol subsidies “pretty strong stuff”

October 21, 2011 By

Republican candidate Mitt Romney says he’s “enough of a business guy” to want to review farm programs and federal price supports for corn and soybeans before saying what he would do as president.  

“I’m not running for office based on making promises of handing out money, all right?” Romney said in Iowa Thursday.

Romney made his comments in Treynor, during a roundtable discussion with over a dozen local farmers and business leaders. Ethanol producer Rick Schwark told Romney the corn-based fuel has a ripple effect on the rural economy.

“In our facility, we have 46 people that work directly at the plant, but each day we receive over 100 semis of corn,” Schwark said. “Those are trucks. Each have a truck driver.”

Romney said he supported federal subsidies for ethanol to help get the industry on its feet, but the subsidies shouldn’t continue forever, according to Romney.  Ward Chambers, a doctor who lives — and farms — in rural Treynor, called that a gutsy stand for Romney.

“No more ethanol subsidies,” Chambers said. “That’s pretty strong stuff for southwest Iowa.”

The federal subsidy for ethanol production is set to expire at the end of the year.  Romney indicated he would like to see more a more gradual reduction in the tax break rather than an abrupt elimination.

During an August visit to Iowa, Romney said he hoped to do “darned well” in the Caucuses. Yesterday in Treynor Romney began his conversation with the folks his campaign had invited to the event in Treynor like this:  “There’s a good shot I might become the next president of the United States. It’s not a sure thing, but it’s a good shot and if I am, I will benefit by having heard from you.”

Romney made three stops in Iowa Thursday, beginning in Sioux City and ending in Council Bluffs, where he met with about three dozen members of the Chamber of Commerce.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Campaign Countdown, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Town square bakery part of organic operation in Emmetsburg

October 20, 2011 By

The old bakery and “luncheonette” on the town square in Emmetsburg will reopen soon, to sell organic products raised in the area. 

“We are renaming it our ‘New Shoots Bakery’ and we are remodeling the building to support a farm store, bakery and a restaurant/cafe,” says Harn Soper, one of the partners in the enterprise. “…Focusing on local, fresh food because there’s quite a demand for that.”

It’s a project of “New Shoots Farm” in rural Emmetsburg. Soper is one of three men who’re working to convert fields that used to be reserved for corn and soybeans into plots for raising organic vegetables and pastures for grass-fed livestock.

“We’re going to be raising 150, 160 grass-fed angus,” he says, “and they’ll be followed in the rotation cycle by several thousand chickens.”

That’s a roughly 160-acre section for cattle and chickens; the other 100 acres will be dedicated to organic vegetable production. The 260 acres were planted with cover crops last fall to begin the conversion to organic farming, a process that may take up to five years. 

The Practical Farmers of Iowa will hold a field day this Friday, October 21, at New Shoots Farms near Emmetsburg. It will conclude with supper at New Shoots Bakery on the town square in Emmetsburg.  Make reservations for the event by phoning the Practical Farmers of Iowa office at 515.232.5661 or by emailing info@practicalfarmers.org.

According to the most recent data available from the U.S.D.A., organic farmers in Iowa were using over 108,000 acres of Iowa land in the 2008 growing season. There were 677 organic farm operations in Iowa that year, according to the U.S.D.A.

(Reporting by Dan Skelton, KICD, Spencer)

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business, Human Interest, News Tagged With: ,
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